


The Salvis King's Manifesto

by asexuelf



Category: Sally Face (Video Games)
Genre: Child Neglect, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Meta, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sal Fisher Has PTSD, Travis Phelps Has PTSD, i posted this on tumblr 800 years ago, not fanfic, so i figured id archive it here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:22:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27495655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asexuelf/pseuds/asexuelf
Summary: A little something I typed up on February 9th, 2020 in response to a Tumblr anon who sent, "As Salvis king I want to know your opinions on the dynamic between Sal and Travis! I think the ship is cute but have a hard time understanding how Sal would go about falling for Travis. Maybe you can bestow some of your wisdom?"Consider this my Salvis manifesto.
Relationships: Sal Fisher/Travis Phelps
Comments: 3
Kudos: 50





	The Salvis King's Manifesto

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoy!

**ANON:** As Salvis king I want to know your opinions on the dynamic between Sal and Travis! I think the ship is cute but have a hard time understanding how Sal would go about falling for Travis. Maybe you can bestow some of your wisdom?

* * *

this is such a fun question!!!!!! this is going to get way too long and i am so fucking sorry ajdndjakdjsf

ok ok, lets get started. so, one of my fave things about shipping people that don't get along in canon is that either a) we have more leg room, like in cases where one character or both (or multi 👀) aren't given a lot of screentime or b) a _challenge_ , like with characters who are shown with high-tension rivalries and are given much screentime (think drarry, for example, or fenders).

now, with salvis, we aren't shown any of their high school years beyond the bologna incident. this makes them 'a', so we can really play around A LOT if we scratch out episodes 4 and 5 to branch into au.

still, we need our groundwork so we know what we're working with. everything we know about travis and sal in high school that comes from in-game is this:

1) travis is likely a repeat offender. the way ash, sal, and larry talk about him after he punches sal seems to mean that this is not a one-off thing. this is supported by sal and travis' talk in the bathroom. travis isn't just a guy who was an asshole, he's a capital 'b' Bully.

2) sal has a support system. when travis hurls stuff at him (a confusing combo of bible stuff and "goody-two-shoes" stuff; projecting much, trav??), sal has people who can help him rub it away and who love him as he is.

3) sal is kind and open-hearted to pretty much everyone he meets. travis is one of the only people we see him be verbally rude to. his sassy response shows he doesn't give a damn what travis is saying, but that it frustrates/annoys him as well. he's obviously tired of trav's bullshit.

4) travis is abused by his cultist father. sal's father struggled with alcoholism and used to be an angry man, as shown in episode 1: strange neighbors and episode 5: memories and dreams. more on this later.

5) travis is gay. ohhh so gay. my poor baby. 😔

this gives us a lot to play with, but you need more details to make it work. we have the what, but now we need the 'how's. 'why's come later.

my personal headcanons to kind of "fluff" or fill in gaps with high school pre-bathroom talk are this:

1) travis is not usually physically violent. the ghosty gang seem surprised he hit sal - and if anyone had tattled, travis would be in trouble. if he gets in trouble, then kenneth finds out. and we all know travis doesn't want kenneth knowing more than he has to... so, travis' bullying is typically verbal.

2) travis doesn't really have friends. he's pretty much sitting alone at lunch + abusers gain more power by isolating their victim. if travis had friends, they'd be solely school friends, but he'd probably be so cagey with them and such a bastard all the time that no one would talk with him. travis lashes out constantly because he feels powerless; why the hell would anyone wanna hang out with him?

3) sal is notoriously kind and polite, which only ostracizes him more, but thankfully protects him from too much bullying. (i was bullied, but because i was "sweet" unless you really pissed me off, i was often left alone). travis is one of the only people that bugs him on a regular basis.

4) sal has his friends, but they're the goths, punks, and emos - and one of them is not only gay but _openly_ gay. in 1992. not exactly the popular kids. they're kind of an isolated group in the classic cliche clique fashion. when travis picks on them, no one's going to stand up for them, even if travis is a dick to them too.

OK. NOW THE FUN PART.

the 'why'.

why the hell would you be into some guy who hurt you?? bullied you?? was a general dickhead to pretty much everybody??

i tend to have a few reasons travis and sal end up together (and why sal catches feelings for him back), which are largely informed by my characterizations for the two.

travis is scared and angry because he's in pain. he's _confused_. and sal is....

sal is sal. where travis externalizes shit, sal internalizes it to the point of sometimes not even seeing it. sal is the kind of guy who tucks his feelings away for another day and then those days don't come around. his dad is an alcoholic, even up to episode 1, when sal is 15. henry hasn't always been a kind man. but still, sal loves him. sal shows in episode 1 that he doesn't seem to have any anger towards his father - or, if he does, it's stuffed down so deep in the guise of "i should be grateful, at least he's trying to get better..." which, uh. ISN'T HEALTHY, LADIES!!

in the bathroom, sal is that way too. though he snarks and bites back at travis in the hallway, we see him being kind and understanding to travis. you can _choose_ to be cruel, but i'm taking the 'atonement' achievement as canon here. sal is kind. sal tucks away his bad feelings to focus on "good" ones: something we also see when he talks to rose about focusing on the light in life to get by.

but travis brought out his 'bad' feelings in a way we dont see much again... hmm.... more on that in a moment.

so, in the bathroom. one of the lines is; "it must be hard being the son of such an intense man". travis says back that sal has no idea, not knowing that sal does, in fact, have an idea. henry may not be violent, but he's neglectful and was seemingly sal's first bully, even if by accident.

here, we have a point of empathy - not just empathy, but shared pain. shared pain goes a long way in human attachments. if you really know what someone else has been through, they tend to make more sense to you - you tend to feel closer.

the bathroom conversation ends with travis confessing and sal extending a hand of friendship.

most fics have travis be pretty honest about wanting his friendship. when you're in pain, you want the pain to stop, right? and when you're in pain, you need a support system. sal provides this support system by introducing travis to more friends.

it takes the ghosty squad a while to warm up. i usually like the idea of what i call "the b-sides squad". chug, maple, neil, and travis as their own 'four horsemen'. these are characters we haven't seen him be cruel to - and, since neil is two years his senior, maple is a quiet loner type, and chug is... well... _chug_ (you know, the kid that braved a ghost for a guy he just met? thinking the guy might have died?? that chug??), travis probably either didn't mess with them too much or they'd forgive him easier once they saw his pain.

so, travis has a support system. he starts getting better. sal and the gang help him start seeing and accepting his abuse. (it is fucking HARD to accept parental abuse. especially culty/religious shit.) as he learns to cope and starts learning how to be himself, travis becomes a better and healthier influence in the lives of others. this includes sal.

sal bottles emotion, but is empathetic and well-spoken. travis expels emotion, but struggles with communication. we see travis is capable, via the letter he drops in the bathroom, but we also see he struggles, just like sal struggles to speak about his feelings and not just other peoples feelings. (ash reaaaaally has to try to convince him to scream in episode 4 ... 👀)

so, they start working together, even by accident. travis learns more about empathy from sal and sal learns more about expressing emotion - yes, sally, even "ugly" emotion that dad won't like! let go off your trauma, handsome! - and it's beneficial to both of them.

they can be good for each other. if they try. they have to try though. which brings us to our next question: the 'how's.

this is just the scenario. this can vary from fic to fic, but i tend to like it like this:

it's not confirmed the letter travis wrote is for sal, but i like to write salvis where it is. so, he's already crushing on sal even when he's struggling horribly with his sexual orientation. sal is pretty, sal is nice, and as he gets to know the guy, he starts to realize that sally face is funny and cool and ugh he plays guitar?? sal it's so cool that you like music... 😳 play me a song.... you see where i'm going with this akdjakds the crush gets worse!! now it's not just infatuation, but he gets to KNOW sal, which is the worst thing you can do when you're crushing on somebody who isn't a dirtbag. it's just gasoline to the fire, babes.

and oh man - sal's reaction to travis coming out (hehe) of his shell. SAL'S REACTION. this is always my favorite part to write. i love sal doing an "OH NO, HE'S HOT" as he gets to know travis. travis is earnest to a fault, which sal finds attractive, and very open about how he feels, for better or for worse (also attractive, especially after growing up with a there-but-absent father). this can also depend on how you characterize travis.

to me, travis is just a skinny bimbo, ok. he is a twink with a head full of fluff and a face full of mean. he is catty and he is dramatic and he is surprisingly thoughtful when it comes down to it. i'm being mostly silly with the bimbo thing, but i really do like making travis a spicy marshmallow. we see that his weird "i hate you for being good at math and polite to the teacher!!" (ANKDWNSKSLDJ) thing shows he cares about being independent, so with some additional church/cult trauma *sprinkles that on*, i like to make him kind of anti-establishment and the type to question authority.

look at sal. tell me he wouldn't think that's hot. you can't, unless you are bisexual, charge your phone, and eat hot chip. because it would be a lie.

so, sal starts crushing back. but he won't say anything. because he's sal and sharing emotions is for taller men. we see he like, never says shit about his crush on ashley. like..... me too sally face but damn. share your feelings

because of this, i like to make it travis who shares his feelings (TO SHOW PERSONAL GROWTH!!!). maybe he shares a letter, or he tells sal openly, or he just kind of... steals sal's 'i'd fuck me' hoodie one day and starts holding sal's hand and hopes for the best (ok he wouldn't but what a legend). either way, talk about a BOOST to sal's self-worth. i have this hc that sal views himself as inherently unlovable (only spurred on by that scene with larry in episode 5 OUCH MY BONES), so being desired that way would help him a lot with healing that part of himself.

and like. listen. love don't heal all wounds and it don't save the day. but, when you love somebody and you see all their nasty little flaws and you _still_ love them... you start to see yourself in a different way too.

sal sees travis' ugly underbelly - the way his ptsd causes him to react, the way he struggles to put himself first, the way he struggles to feel safe, the way he struggles to feel worthy of sal's love. and it's like- lightbulb moment. travis i think we might both be cool and sexy. travis i think we might both be worthy of love. babe wake up this is important.

so BASICALLY oh god this is long as fuck holy shit ansnakkxjsmdjwd WHAT THE FUCK-

ok **BASICALLY TLDR** ; it isn't just about sal "fixing" travis and getting with a guy that hurt him. it's about two wounded people healing together even after those wounds pit them against each other.

i'm just soft ok 😭😭😭😭 it's the _forgiveness._ it's the _healing._ it's about _travis making amends._ ~~god i'm gay~~

ANYWAYS. SORRY THIS GOT SO LONG!!!! it's 2 am and i started having a lot of feelings akdjskd thank you for asking!

lovingly signed,

the salvis king ~~andksmdnskd~~

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading~ i may do a grammar edit and post a second chapter that's a little easier to read, but in the meantime, here's this.
> 
> if you agree or disagree with the points listed here, feel free to talk to me in the comments. after all, comments (and kudos!) are a metalhead's best friends!


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